Factions
by MjaoCait
Summary: I could hear the rustle of grass as the unknown entity shuffled towards me, hidden by shadow. And then it made a sound I was oh so grateful for. It mooed. Of course, with a false sense of security, I walked on and bumped into him... Rated T for language.


**Chapter 1 ****_Luck's fault, honest._**

Dying wasn't as bad as it was made to be, believe it or not. Obviously you lose all your items, your accumulated EXP, gained skills and, last but not least, your life. But waking up and starting anew felt good to me. I had lived a long life, kitted out my small base to the furthest extent, had a large, self supporting farm, and owned a lot of diamonds. The truth is, life was starting to get boring.

When the raiders came, I killed more than a half of their large group before they got the better of me. I died fighting, laughing at the enemy faction as their eyes lit up. I died happy. Leaving everything behind wasn't so hard, and now I was here, in a new world with a new spawn and a few new stone tools. I was looking forward to starting again.

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><p>As day turned to night, I was still trying to find the edge of civilisation. It was safer to stay away from other players, especially factions. They'd either be dubious allies or they'd screw you over as soon as they knew where you kept your stuff. Which leads to dying again in the long run. Didn't want that happening for a long time yet.<p>

The first outcrop of trees I'd seen on this world were just ahead of me. Thank God. It'd taken me 10 hours just to find some trees. Trees! This was a bad thing, because it meant there were a LOT of players on here. Surprisingly, I hadn't run into anyone yet. Talk about luck.

Of course, that was when I saw some movement under the trees. Ducking behind the nearest cover, which happened to be some randomly piled cobblestone, I kept watching, unenthusiastically waiting for whatever it was to show it's face.

I could hear the rustle of grass as the unknown entity shuffled towards me, hidden by shadow. As it got closer, I could hear breaths, deep and slow, matching the pace of its movement. And then it made a sound I was oh so grateful for. It mooed.

I had to stifle a laugh. Looks like my luck hadn't run out yet. I carefully manoeuvred out of my crouch, hoping that my knees would hold. Pesky things. No matter how young I was, they were always 50 years ahead. Walking the last twenty blocks to the outcrop felt exhilarating. Haha! Still alive now, still alive for quite a while to come birches. Can't kill me now!

That was like a cue for what happened next.

Standing behind the cow, diamond sword raised to kill it, was a Player. I froze. Our eyes clashed. The guy lowered his sword and sheathed it. The cow wandered off, not realising it had just been saved from imminent death.

We stared at each other for a good few minutes. In my head I was trying to work out the quickest and safest route to take when running away. My food bar was full, as was my health. There was back the way I'd come, but that ran a high chance of bumping into another few Players. I could try to run past him, but that would likely result in a large wound somewhere on my side due to that sword of his. He was wearing a full set of iron armour, so he wouldn't be able to sprint as fast as me, I hope. The right was impossible, blocked by trees and on my left was a wide open space, I didn't know if he had a bow or not, so taking a chance there wasn't such a good idea.

Just as I was about to try bolting past him, he turned his head sharply as if hearing something. This was my chance. I sprinted for it, almost getting away when strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind. Damn.

"I don't know about you," he huskily whispered into my ear, "but that cow was just killed and I didn't do it."

He pulled me up with him into the branches of a large oak tree. I tried struggling, but he only increased his strong grip on me, and it was starting to hurt. The iron of his armour dug into my back as he held me to his chest. So I gave up. I haven't been on this world for 24 hours and I was already at the mercy of someone I didn't know.

Then I heard a shout, followed by another closer shout.

I could hear the sound of running feet, maybe eight people. My breath hitched as one Player, looking rather beaten with burn marks on his armour and shaggy clothing underneath, entered the small clearing right below our tree. My apparent saviour tightened his already tight hold on me, as if trying to reassure me. The rugged Player slowed to a walk below us and looked around, as if sensing our presence. I prayed that he wouldn't notice us, that he'd walk on. Of course, that didn't happen.

The Player looked up into the trees, squinting his eyes against the darkness, before drawing his sword and walking closer to the trunk of the old oak. I heard a shout, from a score of blocks away, to which the Player below answered, "There's somethin' fishy here boss."

God damnit, I cursed in my head as five other Players came into the clearing. They each drew either a sword, knife or bow from their inventory pack.

An arrow came whizzing towards me, aimed straight for my head, but the next thing I knew the arrow was deflected away from me and cut in half. My eyes widened exponentially. I was now being dragged out of the tree, caught before I reached the ground and towed behind Mister Saviour Player. We were running, and I believe this all happened without my having any time to react, amazing.

I looked behind me to see three Players with swords chasing us, but they were weighed down with armour and didn't seem to have a high agility skill.

Saviour Player was running at a fast pace, despite the heavy armour. His hand gripped mine with such intensity you'd think we'd known each other for years before this happened. It was remarkable that I'd found the one nice Player in the world.

I tugged my hand out of his so I'd have better balance and ran beside him, trying to keep pace. The three men behind us had fallen back by quite the distance.

"Prepare for the fall," Saviour said, confusing me.

I heard the click of a button and the whirring of pistons before we plummeted underground, him locking me in a tight embrace. All the air left my lungs during the fall, and was replaced by water, which was apparently there to break the momentum. Smart if you knew what was happening, deadly if you didn't.

I felt myself pulled out of the water pool, so I decided it would be a good time to cough. And cough I did. I gulped in a number of deep breaths filled with life giving oxygen after ejecting all the water from my lungs before finally taking in my surroundings.

My back was lying on some freezing cold stone, my thin clothes were soaked and drawing all the cool air from the surroundings.

Beside me, sitting cross legged on the ground, grinning and also drenched with water, was Savior Player.

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><p><strong>AN shadowhunterakira is a creepy stalker, she knows what you are going to do far before you do it, so thanks for the encouragement buddy :3**


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